A raucous crowd at Minute Maid Park in Houston came to see Mexican superstar Saul Alvarez against the heavy-handed but James Kirkland in a junior middleweight (154 lbs) contest expected to end in a KO. They got their money's worth of entertainment and their national hero scored one of the best knockouts of 2015.
Kirkland wasted no time coming forward and pushing the action vs. Canelo, but his reputation as someone who simply doesn't care for defense cost him dearly. A short right hand dropped Kirkland with 1:15 left in the opening round and he was on wobbly legs for the remainder of the round.